A/N: Another chapter I wrote last night! I have a few more, but I've been reading through them to make sure they make sense haha also, I've been pretty busy today, so I haven't had a lot of time until now - I have a few hours until netball -it's the last game before finals, and my team is #1 at the moment, but we have a hard game tonight, so wish us luck! :)
Anyways, I'm sorry if there's still errors - I was trying to be quick!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
Enjoy!
Chapter 6
The next morning, Lucy was still angry at her friends for their interrogation. She was just glad that it was a Sunday, and Natsu was never at dinner on Sundays. She wasn't sure if he would even understand what they had been saying.
She ate her breakfast in stony silence, ignoring the comments that were occasionally thrown at her. She hoped they got over this soon.
That was when Lucy noticed that both Gray and Juvia were missing. She smiled to herself slyly as she got up to get ready for class.
Lucy was aware of the constant stares that she received whenever she was with Natsu, and she found herself being unusually cold towards her best friend. She was very irritable that day.
"Luce, what's wrong?" Natsu asked. "Are you mad about the smoothie? I know it tastes bad, but it really does work!" he had no idea why his blonde best friend was hardly talking to him.
"It's not that, Natsu," she hissed. They were in English, the second last class of the day, and the one that also had Levy, Mirajane and Gray. "I'm just trying to concentrate on my studies. I have to do well this year," she turned back to her essay she was working on.
Natsu looked at her sadly for a few more seconds before sighing and turning back to his work. He wasn't the smartest guy around, but he could still tell that she was mad. He wondered what he'd done this time.
The last lesson of the day was Chemistry, and the only lesson that Natsu and Lucy had by themselves. Lucy found herself relaxing rather quickly without all the stares. It was a theory lesson, so most people were just talking.
"Lucy?" Natsu asked timidly.
"What is it?"
"I'm really sorry for whatever it is that I did to make you so mad," he said quickly.
"Natsu.."
"I know that you're mad at me – I'm not as stupid as everyone thinks. I just don't know what I did, and I'm really sorry. Whatever it is – and I'll figure it out eventually – I'm really sorry," he told her sincerely. Lucy was speechless. "You're my best friend, Luce, and I hate it when you're mad at me, so please don't be,"
"Natsu, I'm not mad at you," Lucy assured him. "I'm really sorry for being in such a terrible mood today. You didn't do anything, I promise," she smiled at him.
"Is there anything I can do?" he asked. "Do you need me to beat anyone up?" he added excitedly.
"No!" Lucy cried. "You promised you would try to stop fighting, remember?"
Natsu sagged in his chair.
"Don't worry about me, I'm just having a bad day, that's all," she assured him.
"Okay," Natsu mumbled, still not completely convinced.
"By the way," Lucy said, changing the subject. "Where do you go on Sundays?" she asked him. "Is there a secret girlfriend you wanna tell me about?" she added slyly.
"What? No," he replied, looking at her like she'd grown an extra head. "You're really weird, Luce,"
"I am not!" she cried. "Are you gonna answer the question, or not?"
"I spend the day with Wendy," he shrugged. "To make sure she's okay, and nobody's bothering her,"
"That's so sweet," Lucy smiled. She never would have guessed.
"I was going to invite you yesterday – Wendy keeps talking about you – but I didn't think you could handle my excited sister with a hangover," he added.
"Really?" Lucy was flattered; firstly, because Wendy talked about her, and secondly because Natsu was going to invite her to his brother/sister day.
"Yeah," he smiled. "Wanna come next week?"
"Sure,"
"Great!" he grinned. "Wendy will be so excited!"
Lucy grinned back. She was excited to see the little girl, too. The two chatted happily for the rest of the lesson before the bell went.
Lucy was walking back to the dorm with Levy after Writer's Club that afternoon when she remembered something.
"Levy-chan, is that Gajeel guy bothering you?" Lucy asked.
"W-what?" Levy stuttered. "O-of c-course not! Why do you ask, Lu-chan?" Lucy noticed she was blushing.
"I noticed you staring at him on Saturday," Lucy said, processing her friend's reaction. She gasped. "Levy-chan! You like him!" she cried, pointing at the bookworm.
"N-no I don't!" Levy cried, turning bright red.
"After you gave me all that crap about Natsu," Lucy tutted. "Why didn't you tell me you liked anyone?"
Levy sighed, giving up. "Please don't tell anyone!" she begged.
"Of course not," Lucy assured her. Something suddenly clicked in her mind. "But why do you like him?" she asked. "He seems scary, and not at all you're type,"
"I don't know, Lu-chan," Levy said. "I find him interesting. He has this big show about being all scary and reclusive, but I think that under that, he's really sweet," Levy admitted.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well," Levy began. "Two years ago, when I first moved here, I was cornered by Laxus and his two best friends – Freed and Bickslow. It was the scariest moment of my life. I had no way to fight back. I tried slapping Laxus, but he just pushed me to the ground. I was terrified, but I refused to cry in front of that jerk. That was when Gajeel showed up…"
"Oi," Gajeel's gruff voice came. Four heads snapped to the side to see him leaning against the wall, arms crossed.
"What do you want, Redfox?" Laxus sneered.
"I want you to leave,"
"You leave," Laxus growled. "We were here first,"
Gajeel sighed. "I won't ask you again,"
"Don't you dare threaten Laxus!" Freed cried.
"I'll do whatever I want, freak,"
"Are you tryna pick a fight, punk?" Laxus said dangerously.
"Nope," Gajeel shrugged. "But if you want one, I won't say no,"
"What is your problem?"
"I just don't think that you should be picking on the shrimp," Gajeel said, indicating Levy, still sitting on the floor. "It's three-on-one; that's hardly fair,"
"What's it to you?"
"I just don't want to be on the same team as a coward,"
That was when Laxus and Freed lunged at him, Bickslow following a second later. Gajeel ducked. He was ready for them.
He seemed to be handling the three of them pretty well by himself, and Levy just stared in awe. A few minutes into the fight, Gajeel turned to her.
"You should get out of here, shrimp," he told her gruffly, sending his fist into Freed's stomach. "Unless you wanna join in?" he smirked, kicking Bickslow's feet from under him.
That was when Levy unfroze and ran.
"The next day, all four of them looked pretty beat up," Levy said, looking down. "I never found out who won, but Laxus never bothered me again,"
"Wow," Lucy said. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, Levy-chan," she hugged her. "Does that jerk just enjoy getting rejected? Seriously," Lucy huffed.
"He's always scamming on girls. I learnt that straight away. I just never thought I was pretty enough to have to worry about it," Levy admitted.
"What are you talking about?" Lucy cried. "You're gorgeous! No wonder Gajeel stood up for you,"
"Lu-chan, I don't like that look in your eyes," Levy said worriedly.
"I'm going to help you, Levy-chan!" Lucy declared. "I need to talk to him!"
"No!" Levy cried. "Please don't! He probably doesn't even remember me! I'm not exactly his type,"
"Well, he's not exactly your type, either," Lucy reminded her, winking. Levy groaned.
The girls reached the dorm and had to drop the topic, but Lucy was still determined. She was going to help her best friend get her knight in shining armour!
When Lucy got to the gym, she found Natsu by himself.
"Where's Erza?" she asked. They were both always there waiting for Lucy on Mondays.
"I don't know," Natsu said. "I assumed she was with you,"
"No," Lucy replied. This was weird; Erza never skipped gym days. "I wonder where she is," she murmured.
"She's probably beating up Ice Princess somewhere," Natsu grinned.
"That's just what you want to happen," Lucy sweat dropped.
"It could still be true!"
"Whatever," Lucy sighed, walking to the treadmill.
The spent their gym session together, calling out encouragement when the other started to slack off. Lucy had to admit that Natsu was actually a really good motivator.
He was insane at the gym, barely slowing down, yet he didn't try to push Lucy to do the same thing. He knew what she was capable of, and he pushed her just enough. He didn't put her down for not being able to keep up with him. In fact, he praised her for what she could do. He always sounded so impressed, saying things like, "that's amazing, Luce!" or "how do you do that?"
His praise always made her feel good. He was just so sincere with every compliment; thoroughly impressed with her, even though she wasn't exactly strong, and she was nowhere near his or Erza's level.
Tonight was the first time that she noticed that she had beaten her personal bests in everything, several times over, in just the few weeks that she'd been here. She felt amazing.
"Hey, Natsu," Lucy called as they were leaving.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks," she smiled.
"What for?" he asked, confused.
"For helping me be better," she said, walking ahead of him.
"Huh?" Natsu had no idea what she meant.
She just chuckled as he hurried after her.
Lucy and Natsu were in the gym longer than usual, so they headed straight for dinner together. They were chatting and laughing as usual when Natsu suddenly stopped, staring down the alleyway between the gym and the main school building.
"What's wrong?" Lucy asked.
Natsu simply pointed, not saying anything.
Lucy followed his finger, to see two figures wrapped together. She couldn't see their faces, but she saw the familiar red hair.
"Erza?!" she cried out without thinking.
She quickly slapped her hand on her mouth, but it was too late. The two teens jumped apart, turning to face Lucy and Natsu. The boy had blue hair, and a familiar scar down his right eye.
"Jellal?!" Natsu cried, finally finding his voice.
The four teens simply stood there, staring at each other in disbelief.
A/N: Yay for Jerza!:D
I was planning to have this cliffhanger sitting there for a while, but then I kept writing last night, and I want to get those chapters up, so you'll rea;;y only have to wait if you read this straight away :)
I've just started watching Ouran High School Host Club, have any of you watched it? I'm really enjoying it so far, although I've only watched a couple of episodes :)
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and please review! :)